Wednesday, 20 November 2013

Tanzania's Mkapa: My presidency was tough

By PETER NYANJE for The Citizen | Wednesday, November 20
2013 at
07:49

Former President Benjamin Mkapa speaks at symposium on November 19,
2013. "I came into power when the country was not in good situation
economically. It was one of countries regarded as poorest and we had to
undertake all forms of reforms to get back on track," he said. EMMANUEL
HERMAN | THE CITIZEN

After a long silence, former President Benjamin Mkapa
has opened up on some of the toughest decisions he had to take during
his presidency. If there is one thing he wants, it is that Tanzania
should remember him as the man who brought the country back from the
brink of bankruptcy in 1995.

When Mr Mkapa took over as President, he says he
inherited empty state coffers. The situation was so bad that, at some
point, the government had to borrow money from businessmen to finance
key expenditure. The country was also highly indebted it was on the
point of losing its creditworthiness among local and international
lenders.

Now, he says, his legacy is a strong foundation
for the country’s economy, a project he dedicated himself to in his 10
years in office. Speaking in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday, Mr Mkapa said he
also put a high premium on giving Tanzanians the power to determine
their fate and run their affairs.

Speaking during the opening of a two-day symposium
on African development, he added: “I came into power when the country
was not in good situation economically. It was one of countries regarded
as poorest and we had to undertake all forms of reforms to get back on
track. One thing we did was to empower the private sector to complement
what the government was supposed to do.”

But Mr Mkapa’s critics say he spent too much time
reforming the macro economy at the expense of the micro economy—and this
still left the majority of Tanzanians languishing in poverty.

Mr Mkapa was accompanied by former President of
Nigeria Olsegun Obasanjo and former Botswana President Festus Mogae, a
one-time winner of the Mo Ibrahim Prize.

Crucial decisions

Mr Mkapa was speaking out for the first time on
what he wants Tanzanians to remember him for. He was the President from
1995 to 2005 and was succeeded by President Jakaya Kikwete.

He also revealed two crucial decisions he made
when served as head of state. First, he said, he will always remember
the resignation of one of his crucial Cabinet ministers.

“I was forced to agree to it due to public
pressure but I was very sure that the allegations levelled against the
minister were a work of fabrication,” he recalls.

He did not name the minister. But it is in record
that in his first years in office, Parliament forced three ministers and
one deputy minister to resign. They were Simon Mbilinyi, who was Mr
Mkapa’s Finance minister; Dr Juma Ngasongwa, who resigned as Natural
Resources and Tourism minister due to corruption allegations; and former
spymaster Hassy Kitine ,who resigned as minister for Health.

Trade and Industry Minister Iddi Simba also had to resign later after he was implicated in a sugar importation scandal.

Dr Kitine was one of Mr Mkapa’s closest allies.
Accepting Dr Kitine’s resignation is believed to be one of the toughest
decisions the former President ever made because he believed the former
spymaster was innocent.

Mr Mkapa also told the symposium that the second
decision which will always stick in his memory was resisting the
pressure to change the Zanzibar constitution in order to remove
presidential term limits.

This took place towards the 2000 general election
when some politicians in Zanzibar wanted the then President, Dr Salmin
Amour Juma, to continue serving as head of state despite exhausting his
two five-year terms.

Took a dig

Mr Mkapa took a swipe at the private sector,
saying it has not done enough to complement the government in
strengthening the economy.

Civil Society Organisations also came in for
criticism. He added: “What they (CSOs) are doing is always meeting. If
they are not in Bagamoyo, they are in Morogoro or Arusha... they are
always planning but they don’t execute their plans.”

Though he takes credit for shaping the country’s
economy, Mr Mkapa stands accused of not being careful enough in the
privatisation process. During his tenure, many public firms were
privatised—some at prices dismissed as peanuts.

His leadership is also accused of embracing
corrupt mega deals such as Meremeta and the Liganga and Mchuchuma coal
mine projects. The three former presidents said the continent needed to
establish a think tank that would help governments in negotiations,
especially on the economic front.

The former leaders noted that Africa fails to
effectively use its resources as a source of capital and wealth because
it lacks negotiating skills.

"We need to build a core of negotiators--be they
under the East Africa Community, United Nations Development Programme or
the Africa Union..." said Mr Obasanjo. “We need a strong team of
negotiators who will be available to assist any country on the
continent.”

Citing his country, Mr Mogae noted that many
African countries have failed to benefit from their immense mineral
resources because they did not plan from the word go.

Still valid

“When we discovered minerals we decided to talk
and agree on what we were going to do with revenue from the resources,”
he added. “We agreed that the revenue should be used for national
development. We even singled out areas which should be financed using
the income from minerals.”

After making decisions and plans, the leaders were
all committed to ensuring that the decisions and plans were implemented
to the later.

Mr Mkapa noted that Africa would have consolidated
its place in the global economy if it had decided to use its immense
resource base as collateral and capital.

"I entirely agree with the proposals that
resources can be used as capital but this should not undermine the
importance of financial capital,” he said. On fighting corruption, which
is one of the serious threats to Africa’s progress today, the former
presidents said they would not have done anything different if given a
chance in office again.

"As far as legal framework and institution is
concerned, I would not embark on anything new,” Mr Mkapa said after
President Obasanjo told the audience that he believes that what he did
as President to fight corruption was still valid.

The three leaders were invited to speak at the
opening of the symposium jointly organised by Club de Madrid and Uongozi
Institute, which was meant to propose development policies the
continent could embrace to achieve quick development.

The symposium was designed to give African leaders
an opportunity to analyse development challenges and shortcomings and
come up with alternative systems to help foster economic development on
the continent.